The Hunt
by christhejediknight
Summary: A First Person Point of view story told from Buffy's perspective. Originally an English project but converted to a short fic.


The Hunt  
  
Nighttime: The time when darkness consumed the world and the beasts came out to feast. The time when the sun sank below the horizon, leaving tinges of pink, red, and orange on the clouds above until the night came forth, sweeping across the land like a dark blanket. Nighttime was when I went out into the night, carrying out my birthright. I was chosen to kill the evil beings in the world, and only I could. But there had been many more before me. One every generation they say, and I was chosen this generation.  
  
The air that night was cool, bringing goosebumps to my skin as I walked slowly between the trees. Gravestones lay about me, the dead buried beneath them. I spent every night here, in this lonely place, always slaying the evil that lurked there and around the city I lived in. Every night, I went out with the chance of dying, while also wielding the weapon of death, dealing it upon the darkness. Death was my gift, whether it is by taking a life, or losing my own.  
  
The grass was damp from the rain that had fallen hours earlier, and I had to catch myself a few times from slipping. The wind blew through the trees, rustling the leaves and branches. All the while, I listened intently, for my hearing had improved greatly since I was chosen, as well as my strength. I could hear each individual leaf move in the wind. I could hear the drops of rain that still fell from the wet trees. I could hear my own heart beat in my chest as I walked into a small clearing that was surrounded by several mausoleums.  
  
When I reached the center of the clearing, I could feel that something was wrong. The wind ceased in an eerie way, and all was quiet in the night. Luckily, my hearing didn't fail me, and I heard swift movement from behind me. I turned just in time to see the creature come running at me, prepared to knock me down. I was ready by the time he reached me, and I quickly leaped into the air, going over him and landing behind him. Surprisingly, I didn't slip on the wet grass, but it was awfully close.  
  
The creature turned and growled at me before charging again. This time I held my ground. I had to kill it somehow, and leaping back and forth over it wasn't going to get the job done faster. I used the leverage when he rammed into me to flip him up and over my head, sending the creature flying into a nearby headstone. A sickening crunch emanated from it. But the creature wasn't dead, which was proved to me when it stood back up. It was silly of me to even think it could have died, because just breaking their necks couldn't kill these types of creatures.  
  
I watched as the creature in front of me slowly changed form. Before, it had appeared to be an ordinary human. But it revealed its true form as the fangs slowly appeared in its mouth. Fangs and puncture holes, the mark of a vampire. Unfortunately for him, I knew exactly what would kill it. Wooden stakes, holy water, fire, sunlight, and decapitation would send these evil creatures back to the Underworld in a pile of dust.  
  
It ran up to me with blinding speed. I moved to block the hit, but he moved too fast and his right fist collided with the side of my face, sending me stumbling backwards. The vampire followed through with a roundhouse kick, which I easily ducked. He landed off balance, allowing me the free shot of kicking him upside the head, which flipped him up into the air, coming down to landing on his stomach. I moved to follow through with the attack, but he rolled over quickly, pulling his legs up close to his chest as I reached him. He swiftly planted his feet upon my stomach and kicked with all of his strength. My back slammed into a stone wall of a mausoleum. It screamed with pain as I fell to the grass. My muscles strained to let me get up.  
  
Just as I began to get up, the creature was there again. I barely rolled to the side as his foot came crushing down into the wet grass and soil with a loud thud. I was quickly on my feet again, but my back was still hurting and the vampire had the advantage. He grabbed me from behind, pinning my arms to my side and turning my head to the right to have a clear shot at my neck.  
  
In that moment, my life flashed before my eyes. My childhood, growing up, the divorce or my parents, and that fateful day when my Watcher came to me and told I had been chosen to do this job. "It's your birthright," he had said. My mind flashed to thinking about my friends, my family, and everyone else that I knew. Just thinking about them fueled me with such a desire to live that my body flared with energy. I wasn't ready to die.  
  
I let my head slump forward, in an effort to make the creature believe I passed out. He fell for it. As he brought his fangs towards my neck I threw my head backward, head butting him with such force that he stumbled backward, releasing me from his grip. Luckily, his fangs didn't scratch me. Quickly, with this new amount of energy, I spun and launched a devastating flurry of kicks and punches that knocked him backward over and over again, tiring him as I dealt pain upon him. No doubt he has killed and made many others suffer, and I knew that it was his turn to die. This time he would be dead for good.  
  
Despite the blows I was hitting him with, the vampire fought back, catching me off guard at times with a quick punch or kick. My anger drove me on, and his feeble attempts to slow me down didn't work. Just before the finishing blow, I hit him with all of my strength in the stomach. He bent over, groaning in pain. My left arm knocked him up to standing straight with a swift uppercut, and I moved in with the right. The wooden stake I had pulled from my pocket plunged into his chest, striking the heart.  
  
For one brief second, he cried out in pain, before suddenly exploding into millions of particles of dust, which blew away in the wind. I drew in a deep breath as I brushed off my clothes. My back had stopped hurting, and I felt rejuvenated at scoring another kill. Thanks to my efforts, hundreds if not thousands of people would live longer. I saved people each day, though indirectly, by killing vampires and demons.  
  
I slowly left the graveyard later that night, leaving the quiet place behind. When I entered my own home, I found my mother sitting on the couch, reading a novel. I realized something then as she greeted me. I got out every night, risking my own life to save the lives of others. But in a way, I saved my own life. At least, for one more day.  
  
The End 


End file.
